What is Skin Type?

Understanding Why Skin Type Can Be So Complicated

What is Skin Type? Simply put, skin type is the description and interpretation of how and why your skin looks, feels, and behaves as it does.

The four most common (but really useless) skin type categories used by the cosmetics industry are:

• Normal (no apparent signs of oily or dry areas)

• Oily (shine appears all over skin, no dry areas at all)

• Dry (flaking can appear, no oily areas at all, skin feels tight)

• Combination (oily, typically in the central part of the face, and dry or normal areas elsewhere)

(Often blemish-prone skin is included under oily or combination skin types, though it is sometimes listed as a skin type all by itself. Occasionally, sensitive skin may be listed as an individual skin type but I feel strongly that all skin types should be considered sensitive.) As nice and neat as those four (or six categories) may be, and an excellent starting point, the truth is, understanding your skin type is more often than not far more complicated than this, which is why lots of people find identifying theirs an elusive conundrum of changes that never settles down in one specific direction. Yet, understanding your skin type is incredibly important, just not in the way the cosmetics industry approaches it or the way we’ve been indoctrinated to think about it.

First, skin type is never static. The variations of what is taking place on your skin can not only change season to season but month to month and even week to week. Adding to the complexity is the strong possibility of skin disorders such as rosacea (which affects more than 40% of the Caucasian population), eczema, skin discolorations, precancerous conditions, blackheads, sun damage, and whiteheads. Four or six categories of skin type just can’t cover it. When it comes to determining your skin type you need to forget what you’ve been taught by cosmetic salespeople, estheticians, fashion magazines, (and even some dermatologists).

The typical categories of normal, oily, dry, and combination, are a good basic, but they don’t address every nuance, and they change and fluctuate with everything from the weather to your stress levels.

Why is recognizing all the nuances of your skin type so important? Because different skin types require different product formulations. Even though many skin types often need the same active ingredients such as sunscreen agents, antioxidants, cell-communicating ingredients, and so on, the base they are in (lotion, cream, gel, serum, or liquid) should match the needs of your skin type. Skin type is the single most important factor influencing the decisions we make about the kind of skin-care routines and the products we buy. But we need to be very careful of how we categorize our skin, or the very products we thought would help could actually make matters worse.

What Influences Skin Type?

Almost everything can influence skin type, which is why it can be so tricky to attribute one skin type to what you see on your face. Both external and internal elements can and do impact the way your skin looks and feels. To effectively evaluate your skin and determine the correct skin-care routine, the following needs to be considered:

• Internal Influences:

1. Hormonal changes (pregnancy, menopause, menstrual cycle, etc.)
2. Health problems/Skin disorders (rosacea, psoriasis, thyroid disorders, etc.)
3. Genetic predisposition of skin type (oily versus dry, prone to breakouts, sensitive skin)
4. Smoking
5. Medications you may be taking
6. Diet

• External Influences:

1. Climate/weather (cold, warm, moist, dry)
2. Your skin-care routine (over-moisturizing or over-exfoliating, using irritating or drying products, using the wrong products for your skin type)
3. Unprotected or prolonged sun exposure

These complex, often overlapping circumstances all contribute to what takes place on and in your skin which then determines your skin type.

Will My Skin Type Change?

The short answer is yes. Another problem with skin typing is the assumption that your skin (and skin type) will be the same forever, or at least until you age. That, too, is rarely the case. If your skin-care routine focuses on skin type alone, it can become obsolete the moment the season changes, your work life becomes stressful, or your body experiences hormonal or diet fluctuations or other physical changes, and whatever else life may bring. To complicate things even more, in any given period you may have multiple skin types! It is not unusual for people to have a little bit of each skin type simultaneously or at different times of the month or week. An overview of how your skin behaves and changes is necessary to assess what your skin needs and then respond by applying the appropriate products to those problems areas.

Will I Ever Have "Normal" Skin?

It depends on how you define normal. As far as the cosmetics industry is concerned, every person can and should have normal skin. Yet acquiring normal skin is like trying to scale a peak with a slippery, precarious slope. Like the rest of our bodies, skin is in a constant state of change. Even people with seemingly perfect complexions go through phases of having oily, dry, or blemish-prone skin and then there are all the issues related to sun damage or merely growing older. In reality, no one is likely to have normal skin for very long, no matter what they do. Chasing after normal skin can set you on an endless skin-care buying spree, running around in circles trying everything and finding nothing that works for very long or that makes matters worse. In any case, identifying skin type is highly subjective. Many people have really wonderful skin but refuse to accept it. The smallest blemish or wrinkle or the slightest amount of dry skin distresses them. Or some people see a line or two around their eyes and immediately buy the most expensive anti-wrinkle creams they can find in the hope of warding off their worst imagined nightmare. This is one of those times where being realistic is the most important part of your skin-care routine.

Combination Skin Makes Skin Type Confusing

Identifying your skin type is made even more difficult by the all-encompassing combination skin type. Almost everyone at some time or another, if not all the time, has combination skin. Physiologically, the nose, chin, center of the forehead, and the center of the cheek all have more oil glands than other parts of the face. It is not surprising that those areas tend to be oilier and break out more frequently than other areas. Problems occur when you buy extra products for combination skin because many ingredients that are appropriate for the T-zone (the area along the center of the forehead and down the nose where most of the oil glands on the face are located) won’t help the cheek, eye, or jaw areas. You may need separate products to deal with the different skin types on your face because you should treat different skin types, even on the same face, differently. Aside from the ubiquitous nature of "combination" skin, another limitation of skin type is that it cannot address skin care needs that may not be apparent on the skin’s surface. For example, sun damage is not evident when you are younger, but sun protection is imperative for all skin types. Oily and dry skins that are present at the same time, along with some redness, may be an early sign of rosacea, a condition that cannot be treated with cosmetics and is not easily diagnosed. What you see on the surface of the skin does not always indicate the type of skin-care products you should buy. One other important point, the skin care products you use can influence your skin type. Judging skin type simply by looking at your face and feeling your skin won’t address the underlying cause. For example, if you use an emollient cleanser, and follow it with a drying, alcohol-laden toner, and then an emollient moisturizer with a serum underneath, that could very well be causing you to have noticeably combination skin. Using a moisturizer that is too emollient for your skin could be causing breakouts. Using skin-care products that contain irritating ingredients could cause dryness, irritation, and redness. You may think you have a particular skin type, but you may be looking at your skin’s reaction to the products you are using.

Everyone Has Sensitive Skin

Most of us have, to one degree or another sensitive or easily irritated skin. Regardless of your primary skin type, ethnic background, or age, minor or major irritating skin conditions can be present, even those you can’t feel. The skin can burn, chafe, or crack, and you may have patchy areas of dry, flaky skin related to weather conditions, hormonal changes, the skin-care products you use, or sun exposure. Skin can also break out in small bumps that look like a diaper rash. Skin can itch, swell, blotch, redden, and develop allergic reactions to cosmetics, animals, dust, or pollen. If that isn’t enough to make you itch just a little, then think about the number of cosmetics most women use daily. The average woman uses at least 12 different skin-care, makeup, and hair-care products a day, with each one, on average, containing about twenty different ingredients. That means her skin is exposed to about 200 different cosmetic ingredients on any given day. The fact that any of us have skin left is a testimony to the skin’s resiliency and the talent of cosmetics chemists. Whether we like it or not, most of us will react to something along the way, perhaps even daily. Your skin is the protective armor that keeps the elements and other invaders from entering the body. We protect most of our anatomy with clothing, but our faces are left painfully exposed to everything. It’s no wonder the skin on our faces acts up now and then. Sensitive skin is probably the most "normal" type of skin around. Everyone has the potential to develop sensitive skin, so people of every skin type should heed the precautions for sensitive skin. What are the precautions?

There is really only one and it goes for all skin types: Treat your skin as gently as you possibly can. Whether you think of your face as oily, dry, or mature, you still need to be gentle with your skin and avoid things that cause irritation. The operative word is gentle. Preventing skin irritation, regardless of your skin type, is the course of action recommend. Of course, some skin types can and should try to tolerate certain potentially irritating ingredients because of their overwhelming potential to help skin look better. A topical disinfectant (like 2.5% benzoyl peroxide, for instance) is helpful for someone with blemish-prone skin, while a BHA solution (a salicylic acid exfoliant) is good for someone with blackheads and blemish-prone skin. Likewise, an AHA (an alpha hydroxy acid product used to exfoliate) or Retin-A or Renova (to improve cell formation) are beneficial for someone with sun-damaged skin. Aside from these types of exceptions to the gentleness rule, if something is irritating it can be detrimental for all skin types. If it is bad for sensitive skin, it is probably bad for oily skin, acne-prone skin, combination skin, dry skin, or menopausal skin. As you integrate this gentleness philosophy into your skin-care routine, you will slowly solve many of the skin problems you have been experiencing.

Skin Type Has Nothing to Do with Your Age

Older skin is different from younger skin; that is indisputable. Yet it is a mistake to buy skin-care products based on a nebulous age category. Treating older or younger skin with products supposedly aimed at dealing with specific age ranges does not make sense because not everyone with "older" or "younger" skin has the same needs, yet it’s a trap many women (especially older women) fall into. An older person may have acne, blackheads, eczema, rosacea, sensitive skin, or oily skin, while a younger person may have dry, freckled, or obviously sun-damaged skin. Products designed for older "mature" skin are almost always too emollient and occlusive, and those designed for younger skin are almost always too drying. The key issue with skin type needs to be the actual condition of your skin, not your age. In fact, regardless of age, all skin types, young and old, need sun protection, lots of antioxidants, ingredients that mimic skin structure, and cell-communicating ingredients. These types of ingredients are of the utmost importance for skin care and age doesn’t change or alter that in any way. While wrinkles may tend to separate younger from older skin, your skin can still be oily at 60 and you can still struggle with breakouts. Not everyone in their 40s, 50s, 60s, or 70s has the same skin-care needs. In a way it’s simple: You need to pay attention to what is taking place on your skin, and that varies from person to person.

Does Skin Color or Ethnicity Affect Skin Care?

All skin is subject to a range of problems, regardless of skin color or ethnic background. Whether it is dry or oily skin, blemishes, scarring, wrinkles, skin discolorations, disorders, or sensitivity, and even risk of sun damage, all men and women share similar struggles. So, while there are some distinctions between varying ethnic groups when it comes to skin problems and skin-care options, overall these differences are minor in comparison to the number of similarities.

What Do You Do Now?

Ideally, you should be using products that don’t create or reinforce undesirable skin types. Among the offending products are bar soaps and bar cleansers (both can artificially make skin dry and irritated), occlusive moisturizers that can clog pores and make breakouts worse, or skin-care products that contain irritating ingredients (redness, inflammation, and flaking) including astringents and toners loaded with alcohol and other potentially irritating ingredients. All of these can wreak havoc on the skin. Regardless, from this point forward you will be better able to understand your skin type and know how to treat your skin appropriately with what is actually helpful for your skin.